(FORTUNE Magazine) – Two years after Sarbanes-Oxley was passed, accounting has gotten a lot better, right? Well, not exactly, at least according to two new polls of CFOs. A recent survey by CFO Magazine found that since 2001, one-fifth of financial executives said they felt more pressure to use tricky accounting methods to "make results appear more favorable." And half felt there was the exact same amount of pressure as there was three years ago, before regulators supposedly cracked down. And another study from Duke University found that while only 8% of CFOs would be willing to use accounting tricks, 80% would decrease discretionary spending and 55% would delay new projects to keep earnings on target. Sounds suspiciously like the type of thinking that got us in trouble in the first place.

--Telis Demos